Marc Freedman and Encore.org to Receive Eisner Prize

We’re thrilled to announce that Marc Freedman and Encore.org are receiving the $100,000 Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence! Below is the full press release, which originally appeared on The Eisner Foundation’s website.

LOS ANGELES, CA (October 30, 2018) – The Eisner Foundation announced today that Marc Freedman and the organization he leads, Encore.org, will win this year’s Eisner Prize for Intergenerational Excellence. The Prize includes a $100,000 cash gift in recognition of an exceptional individual or non-profit organization that unites multiple generations to bring about positive, lasting changes in their communities. The Prize will be awarded at the Encore.org 20th Anniversary Summit in Los Angeles on November 13, 2018.

“It’s essential to the mission of The Eisner Foundation to highlight programs across the country that show just how effectively intergenerational programs enhance society,” said Michael Eisner, founder of The Eisner Foundation. “Marc Freedman and Encore.org, with their dynamic view of life after 50, have certainly changed the way many older adults engage with their communities.”

Marc Freedman founded Encore.org in 1998, and over the past 20 years has sought to reframe later life as an “encore” – an opportunity to leverage experience to improve society at all levels. Encore.org has pioneered several projects that activate older adults in the service of others, including: Experience Corps, bringing older volunteers into classrooms (now operated by AARP); Encore Fellowships, placing seasoned professionals in high-impact positions at social purpose organizations; and the Generation to Generation campaign, mobilizing older adults to work, in paid and volunteer positions, on behalf of children and youth. Since its founding, Encore.org has activated tens of thousands of adults nationwide through these intergenerational efforts.

“I am so grateful to the Eisner Foundation for this award, for its support of this important and timely movement, and for its leadership in the philanthropic world,” Freedman said. “The Eisner Foundation is the first American foundation to fully dedicate itself to bringing the generations together for mutual benefit and among the first to see clearly that a more old than young society must use all available resources, including the talents of those over 50, to create a better future for future generations.”

The Eisner Foundation has honored a wide range of individuals and nonprofits with The Eisner Prize since the first was awarded to Nancy Henkin and the Temple University Intergenerational Center in 2011. Other previous winners include DOROT in New York, Generations United in Washington, D.C., Bridge Meadows in Portland, and Experience Corps, a nationwide program that originated at Encore.org.

“For two decades, Marc Freedman has inspired millions with his conviction that older adults can be a force for good,” said Trent Stamp, CEO of The Eisner Foundation. “Given the growing number of older adults in our society, this is a movement that’s just getting started.”